The Adirondack Council

News Release

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John F. Sheehan
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Released, Thursday, December 4, 2003

ALBANY, NY - The Adirondack Council joined forces with a broad coalition of other environmental organizations today to call on the Governor and Legislature to increase spending on the state's most pressing environmental priorities.

"The Governor and Legislature have been raiding the unspent balance from the Environmental Protection Fund recently, diverting the money to the General Fund in an effort to balance the state budget," said Adirondack Council Acting Legislative Director Scott M. Lorey. "That has left us with a $400-million gap between the state's commitments and the actual money spent to meet them. In fact, more money has been raided from the EPF in the past three years than has actually been spent on the environment.

"We urge the Legislature and Governor to appropriate a total of $250 million for the EPF this year to cover projects that went unfunded in past years, plus the projects waiting for new funds," Lorey said. "However, under this plan, only the normal $125 million would be drawn from the accounts that normally fund the EPF. The remainder would come from the Environmental Facilities Corporation bonding that was promised last year, and the year before, to make up for the Governor's and Legislature's decisions to remove the unspent cash from the EPF.

"Of the total appropriated this year, $35 million to $38 million should be set aside for open space projects," Lorey said. "That would be in line with past years."

When the State Legislature created New York's Environmental Protection Fund in 1993, the idea was to appropriate at least $125 million each year to deal with pressing environmental needs, such as open space, clean water, solid waste disposal, recycling facilities and other big-ticket items. A portion of the state's real estate transfer tax and other smaller taxes/fees are automatically deposited into the EPF each year in the sum of $125 million.

"Last month, in our 2003 State of the Park report, we gave Governor Pataki a 'thumbs down' for proposing that salaries and other day-to-day state expenses be paid for out of the 2002-03 EPF. We gave the Legislature a 'thumbs up' for removing those expenses from the final budget bill," Lorey said. "We are hopeful that, this year, the Governor will save us all the trouble of going through the same exercise."

Priorities which remain unfunded in the Adirondack Park:

• Domtar/Sable Highlands: Several parcels in the Northeastern Adirondack Park totaling 105,000 acres. The timber company owner wants the state to purchase the development rights on the company's entire holdings, and is offering some parcels for sale to the state. Those parcels surround water bodies and existing Forest Preserve and would improve public access to both. Domtar has been waiting for the state to take action since 1992, when it first proposed the easement deal - a year before the EPF was created. Ironically, the need to protect Domtar holdings was a key reason for the creation of the EPF.
• Tahawus tract: A 6,500-acre tract of land offered to the state for inclusion in the High Peaks Wilderness. The land has been protected by the Open Space Institute, a not-for-profit land conservancy, but cannot become part of the public Forest Preserve's High Peaks Wilderness until the state acquires it.
• Moose River: The merger between Niagara Mohawk Power Corp. and National Grid last year resulted in the offer of 3,600 acres of undeveloped riverfront (including five miles of shoreline) along the main branch of the Moose River in Lyonsdale, Lewis County. The state has appraised the land and is nearly ready to make an offer to the company, which agreed to sell at fair market value. The lands are adjacent to the public Forest Preserve's Black River Wild Forest.
• Clean water/Pollution prevention: The Park's small towns and sparse populations cannot generate the tax revenue needed to install and improve drinking water and wastewater treatment facilities, fix runoff problems and address other non-point-source water pollution problems. These same small municipalities provide clean drinking water, sewage treatment and other services for 9 million visitors each year.

In addition to the $250-million total appropriation, the Council and other organizations asked the Governor and Legislature to avoid adding any new categories to the list of obligations paid for by the EPF without adding the revenue to cover them. "We aren't keeping up with what needs to be done right now," Lorey explained. "We don't want to add to the problem and fall even further behind."

The Adirondack Council's mission is to ensure the ecological integrity and wild character of the Adirondack Park. Founded in 1975, the Adirondack Council is an 18,000-member, privately funded, not-for-profit organization with offices in Elizabethtown and Albany.